Property owner Joe Seger talks about his stolen anchor, which weighs as much as 500 pounds, on Tuesday, June 25, 2013, at Reges Apartments in Albany, N.Y. Seger is seeking help in finding the stolen ship's anchor that has sentimental value to him. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union) less

Property owner Joe Seger talks about his stolen anchor, which weighs as much as 500 pounds, on Tuesday, June 25, 2013, at Reges Apartments in Albany, N.Y. Seger is seeking help in finding the stolen ship's ... more

Photo: Cindy Schultz

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Property owner Joe Seger talks about his stolen anchor, which weighs as much as 500 pounds, on Tuesday, June 25, 2013, at Reges Apartments in Albany, N.Y. Seger is seeking help in finding the stolen ship's anchor that has sentimental value to him. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union) less

Property owner Joe Seger talks about his stolen anchor, which weighs as much as 500 pounds, on Tuesday, June 25, 2013, at Reges Apartments in Albany, N.Y. Seger is seeking help in finding the stolen ship's ... more

Photo: Cindy Schultz

Image 3 of 5

Property owner Joe Seger indicates the height of his stolen anchor, which weighs as much as 500 pounds, on Tuesday, June 25, 2013, at Reges Apartments in Albany, N.Y. Seger is seeking help in finding the stolen ship's anchor that has sentimental value to him. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union) less

Property owner Joe Seger indicates the height of his stolen anchor, which weighs as much as 500 pounds, on Tuesday, June 25, 2013, at Reges Apartments in Albany, N.Y. Seger is seeking help in finding the stolen ... more

Photo: Cindy Schultz

Image 4 of 5

An example from a Internet site of an anchor similar to the one stolen from Joe Seger. Photo of the screen shot taken on Tuesday, June 25, 2013, at Reges Apartments in Albany, N.Y. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union) less

An example from a Internet site of an anchor similar to the one stolen from Joe Seger. Photo of the screen shot taken on Tuesday, June 25, 2013, at Reges Apartments in Albany, N.Y. (Cindy Schultz / Times ... more

Photo: Cindy Schultz

Image 5 of 5

Anchor theft weighs on him

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Albany

Joe Seger is a landlubber, has been all his life. Still, that didn't stop him from becoming the victim of an epic act of inland piracy.

For nearly four decades, a hefty gray ship's anchor sat perched behind a Hartman Road apartment complex Seger owns — a gift from a former employee's parents that tickled both his interest in history and antiques.

Forged of cast iron or steel, it stood about 4 feet tall and weighed, he guesstimates, somewhere between 450 and 500 pounds, including a 6-foot length of chain at the end. He never bothered bolting it down.

"Whoever dreamt anybody would take a damn anchor, for God's sake?" the 78-year-old contractor and property manager reasonably asks.

Well, someone did.

The anchor vanished in late May in what Seger strongly suspects was an inside job perpetrated by a disgruntled former tenant. The building is nestled in a thickly treed neighborhood near the Normans Kill far from any main road.

Seger doesn't dwell much on how the bandits — he's confident there had to be more than one — committed the heist.

"If you use your brain, you can move anything," he said.

He simply wants it back.

"I just want them to know that it means a lot to me personally, not dollarwise," he said.

It might not be worth much to anyone else, either.

Frank White, manager of Capitol Scrap Metal Co. at the Port of Albany, said scrap cast iron and short steel — steel already in relatively small pieces — are selling for about $270 per gross ton, or about 12 cents a pound. At 500 pounds, that would put the payday for the anchor around $60 — seemingly hardly worth the heavy lift.

The non-wholesale price might be even lower.

"There's probably a better chance it will show up on Craigslist or eBay or something like that," said another scrap dealer, who asked not be quoted by name.

Based on his own web searches, Seger believes the anchor's value could be greater than its scrap weight because of its age and history — even though he, a former member of the National Guard, is admittedly foggy about both.

Some 38 years ago, Seger did a favor for the parents of a former employee, a family by the name of Plourde, and spotted the anchor in their back yard. The man's father, who wisecracked that he returned from the Navy with it "in his duffel bag," was happy to be rid of it.

"His father said, 'You want it? Get it the hell out of here," Seger recalled. And he happily obliged.

Seger said the closest thing to a provenance he ever got was that the anchor may have come from a military landing craft in service sometime between the World Wars, but he's not certain.

He reported the theft to police but — perhaps understandably — it has not seemed like much of a priority, he said.

If the anchor is returned before it hits the scrap yards, Seger said he won't press charges and hopes someone won't just dump it somewhere.

"It's just the idea that this was a gift to me, and I treasure things like that," Seger said. "If they just give it back, end of story."